ISRAEL 11 ■ •• ■ • Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year. Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year. We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year SHEILA MILLER DENIECE & BRIAN CAROLE ROBINER•SHAW FRED & BEVERLY KANDEL Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year. Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year. We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year BEN & EILEEN RUBENS MR. & MRS. SZMUL JUTKIEWICZ & FAMILY JUDGE SUSAN MOISEEV We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year STEVEN, LISA, JAMIE, BRYAN & MORGAN BINDER BOB & STELLA HOLLENDER We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year AL & BEVERLY BETZ A Very Happy and Healthy New Year to All Our Friends and Family. A Very Happy and Healthy New Year to All Our Friends and Family. MEL & BARB RYCUS Sedona, AZ A Very Happy and Healthy New Year to All Our Friends and Family. May the coming year be one filled with health, happiness and prosperity for all our friends and family. A Very Happy and Healthy New Year to All Our Friends and Family. To All Our Relatives and Friends, Our wish for a year filled with happiness, health and prosperity. To All Our Relatives and Friends, Our wish for a year filled with happiness, health and prosperity. C ) k . 4 MADELON, LOU, MELISSA & ADRIANNE SELIGMAN 102 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991 1,11 ANNE & AARON GINSBERG Holidays Held Ethiopian Style LISA SAMIN Special to The Jewish News nd in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation: you shall do no work; it is a day of blowing the Shofar un- to you" (Numbers 29). Although the Jews were dispersed for over 2,000 years, most of the communities were informed of the addition of laws and customs to Judaism and included them in their daily observance. The Ethio- pian Jewish community, however, had no knowledge of these additions and continued to practice Judaism exactly as written in the Torah. The Torah is the embodi- ment of Judaism, which over the centuries has come to in- clude laws and customs hand- ed down by the great rabbis: Halachah. (the laws of Judaism), the Mishnah (a col- lection of Jewish traditions), the Talmud (the authoritative body of Jewish tradition) and a vast realm of textual inter- pretations. Kesim, the religious leaders of the Ethiopian Jewish com- munity, held a similar role to < the High Priests during the First Temple period, being responsible for the Jewish community's religious obser- vance. The Torah and all other religious books were written in Ge'ez, an ancient Semitic language in which prayers and blessings were also recited. As the kesim are the only ones who knew Ge'ez, it was customary for them to perform the religious ceremonies and rituals. The Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur traditions were practiced much as they are celebrated in Israel today, although some have not been observed here since the destruction of the First Temple. Once chief kes of the Gon- dar region of Ethiopia, Kes Rafael Hadane, whose son Yosef is now the chief rabbi of the 'Ethiopian Jewish com- munity in Israel, came to Israel six years ago in Opera- tion Moses. A distinguished spiritual leader, he describes Rosh Hashanah in Ethiopia: "The holiday was called Bacharan Tzark a, which means 'remember Abraham,' in memory of the sacrifice of Isaac. It was a very special time when all work stopped and the whole community re- joiced. "We began our prayers at the synagogue at sunrise and people came from all over,